Testify Against Slavery

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LECTURE/RECITAL

Ruth Naomi Floyd on Frederick Douglass: Exploring Music, Justice and Protest 

Sat 23, November, 2024, 1:00pm, Chaplaincy Centre, Dundee.

For more information and ticket booking visit jazzscotland.com/collections/dundee-jazz-festival/products/ruth-naomi-floyd-lecture-recital

The essence of Frederick Douglass’ speeches in Dundee, Scotland, emphasised three significant themes: the atrocities of American Slavery, Christianity and the American Church, and The Free Church of Scotland, along with the Send Back the Money Campaign. The photographic images I have created, the text I selected, and the designs of Owen Daily reflect these three themes. At the root of the three themes is that every human being is valued and has the right to freedom and liberty. As an artist, independent historical researcher, and justice worker, I knew this history must continue to be shared. Frederick Douglass was viewed as “Scotland’s Anti-slavery agent,” and his powerful words both compel and inspire us to examine our community(ies), country, and world.

“Scotland is a blaze of anti-slavery agitation – the Free Church and Slavery are the all-engrossing topics…The Free Church is in a terrible stew. Its leaders thought to get the slaveholders’ money and bring it home, and escape censure. They had no idea that they would be followed and exposed. Its members are leaving it, like rats escaping from a sinking ship. There is a strong determination to have the slave money sent back, and the Union broken up. In this feeling all religious denominations participate. Let slavery be hemmed in on every side by the moral and religious sentiments of mankind, and its death is certain.” (Frederick Douglass, letter to William Lloyd Garrison, April 16, 1846)

I chose to illustrate the themes of Frederick Douglass’ lecture with photography, as photography is tied to Frederick Douglass’ legacy. Frederick Douglass’ was the most photographed American of the 19th century and the second most photographed human in the world except for the British royal family. In his lecture titled “Pictures and Progress,” Frederick Douglass presented the new technology of photography and explained how to utilise it to challenge the dehumanising and stereotypical depictions of African Americans in media. Douglass emphasised the importance of reclaiming the power of self-representation to promote more accurate and empowering images of African Americans during a time when such representations were rare.

Images by Ruth Naomi Floyd. Text designed by Owen Daily

Testify Against Slavery Panel 6: photograph of title page - The ‘Story of the Slave’ ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave' by Frederick Douglass. Available online at the National Library of Scotland. (bit.ly/SNH-NLS) Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.